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AirSWAT – The Series – Chapter 7

Okay, this one won’t be that long. I’ve talked about most of the issues we had as a group already, and to continue would seem like regurgitation. I will talk about motives for a little bit, but I’m saving the big lesson for the last entry which is looming on the horizon like some kind of, I don’t know, celestial orb or something, burning with the heat of hell’s fury.

. . . Yeah, a little like that, I guess . . .

Now people can have different motives for doing things, which is fine. I have a friend that drinks to escape the misery of life, and I drink because my great-great-grandfather was a bottle of gin and so it’s up to me to maintain the heritage. And yet we both get together and hit up the bars like we’re going to die tomorrow, which might be a self-fulfilling prophesy depending on how much liquor we can get our hands on. But motives can also clash and on artistic projects how those clashes are dealt with could mean the difference between a great partnership and never working with each other ever again.

One person is it in for the money. One person is strictly about the art. One is for the jokes and the other for the action. One is willing to alter the idea to reach the biggest audience, and the other is willing to sacrifice viewership for originality. None of these are the wrong choices and they aren’t necessarily polar opposites –

This is the cutest example of opposites that I could find.

– but given equal power and gone unsaid, the separate motives of the individuals will damage the group as a whole. Something has to give, and each side has negative connotations. Work for the money, you’re a sellout. Work for the art, you’re a snob. Try to work for both and you’re unrealistic. The only thing more important than figuring out your partners’ motives is figuring out yours, not just for the project but for your life as an artist. Where you fall in this constant debate between artists will not just sculpt your work but the environment you build for yourself.

This was the beginning of our zany PSA’s, where we ditched trying to deliver some social-minded message for getting in whatever one-liners we couldn’t fit into the main script, and because of that this ended up being the weakest one. It’s still funny, but it’s also transparent, neither relying on us as a misguided group nor individual characters spreading awareness. It does make me hungry every time I watch it though.